Marauders and Marauderette
by Pottergirl101
Summary: Lily Evans, muggle, doesn't know anything about wizards and witches. That's why when she meets a group of boys in Diagon Alley she's grateful. What happens when instead of loathing the Marauders, Lily becomes their best friend? LJ and other pairings.
1. Prologue

A/N: I got tired of the same stories that I've been working on, so I tossed this one together to make it interesting. Not to worry though, my main promise to everyone is that i will never leave a story unfinished, though it may take me a while to update them. Please R & R!

An eleven-year-old girl stood in front of the Leaky Cauldron, twisting her small hands nervously as she chewed on her lip. Her red hair shown in the soft afternoon sunlight, and strangely enough, the small child was standing alone. After another five minutes of starring at the nearly hidden bar, the redhead sighed softly and shakily made her way inside the building. Taking small steps, she leaned her form against the edge of the bar and eyed the barkeeper hopefully.

"Excuse me? Erm . . . Excuse me . . . Sir?"she asked in a quiet voice.

A tall man with thick hair and straight, white teeth turned to face her with a raised eyebrow. "Sir? Call me Tom, little lady," the handsome barkeeper replied.

The girl hesitated, her cheeks tinging pink. "Er, Tom, then? Could you . . . How do you . . ." she trailed off, blowing a strand of hair out of her startling green eyes.

Tom, who was used to tentative muggleborns asking him questions about Hogwarts and the whereabouts of Diagon Alley, just smiled, setting down the glass he had been cleaning with a small rag. "And what is your name," he asked in what he hoped to be a soothing tone.

"Lily." she stated. "Lily Evans."

Tom patted her shoulder. "Muggleborn, I presume?"

Lily stared blankly at him for a moment, her jaw slightly ajar. It seemed that after a few second she realized she was being rude so Lily closed her mouth. "A what? I'm sorry, but I don't really know how these things work . . ."

Tom nodded understandingly. "You want to know how to get to Diagon Alley."

Lily paused, than pulled a neatly folded piece of paper from the pocket of her jean skirt. Opening it, her eyes scanned until she saw 'Diagon Alley' scrawled in neat green letters. "Yes, I think that's where I'm supposed to go. It would be helpful if you knew what I was to do and--"

Lily stopped talking when she noticed that Tom was looking around the bar as if trying to find somebody. For Tom, seeing newcomers was quite normal, but the kids usually had frightened parents at their side. It was becoming clear that Lily was alone. "Where are you parents, Lily?" he asked finally.

Lily frowned, giving a little sniff. She didn't want to tell a complete stranger about her personal life, even if he was nice. Instead, she thought up a quick explanation to her isolation. "Do you always ask personal questions?" she asked, her green eyes flashing with annoyance. When Tom showed no sign of backing away from his question, Lily made a clucking sound with her tongue. "They dropped me off outside. My Mum's shopping in London, and besides, I'm old enough to go by myself."

Tom was surprised at the little girls wit, and instead of persisting he beckoned for her to follow him around back where a few trash cans were covering a dirty brick wall.

"Huh?" Lily tilted her head in confusion as she watched Tom tap specific bricks. What happened next made her jaw drop for the second time that afternoon.

The bricks were moving apart, revealing a long and cheerful looking cobblestone street. The scene washed over her, temporarily freezing her in place until Tom's voice rang through her ears.

"So long, Lily Evans. Good luck with your shopping!" Than, the handsome barkeeper bayed her goodbye and stepped back inside, closing the door with a snap.

Lily was amazed at the brightly colored shops and stands that littered Diagon Alley's streets. There were animals she had never seen in her entire life that were just sitting in cages on the side of the road, almost as if it were completely normal to own huge turtles with brightly colored shells trying to spit fire at a passerby's ankles.

The shop that interested Lily the most, however, was a gigantic book shop with a huge ceiling that towered above the shops resting beside it. When she raised a hand to shield her eyes from the sun, Lily was able to interpret that the store was called 'Flourish and Blotts'.

Deciding that she wanted to take a look at some wizarding books and also buy her school books, Lily pushed the heavy door open and stepped inside. The room had a slight odor of paper and new books, a smell that Lily loved. Smiling, she walked down a large shelf, examining the titles of various books that caught her eye. The topics were equally strange as they were interesting. Ranging from _Advanced Charms _to_ How to Catch a Lethifold_, they were all extremely foreign, almost as if written in a different language.

Lily pulled the supply paper from her skirt pocket once more. It was the supply list for Hogwarts, and Lily ran a petite finger down the list until she got to the set course books. _The Standard Book of Spells: Grade One_ by Miranda Goshwirp was the first one on the list. She was just about to ask the bookkeeper for help in finding the book when Lily heard voices coming from the opening door.

"I cannot believe you, Sirius. You just **_had_** to push Peter into that bucket of flobberworms, didn't you?"

"Actually, I thought it was quite funny."

"You see, Remus? James thinks it was funny too."

Lily turned to see three boys around her own age bustling into view. One was about an inch taller than the other two, and had sandy blonde hair and gray eyes that crinkled at the edges, making Lily wonder why he looked so tired. The boy standing next to the tall boy had shaggy dark-brown hair that showed off his perfect face. Lily knew that this boy could have been a model in the non-wizarding world if he wanted to. The last boy had strange black hair that stuck out at odd angles in the back. He wore silver glasses that framed mischievous hazel eyes. He too was very good-looking.

"I don't care if it was funny. Did you see the look on Peter's mum's face when she saw the worm slime dripping from his hair?" the blonde boy pestered the other two.

The boy with the brown hair shrugged. "Relax, Remus. I know you think it was funny, too. You were just acting like it wasn't because all the parents were watching."

The blonde boy, or Remus as the brown haired boy had called him, frowned at the other boys and then, out of the blue, gave the brown-haired boy a shove. Lily, not having the quickest reflexes, did not have enough time to move out of the way and gave a small squeak of surprise when the boy came crashing into her. Both eleven-year-olds went tumbling against the bookshelf, sending a heavy volume upon their heads.

"Merlin! I'm so sorry, Sirius! Are you okay?" exclaimed Remus, stumbling over to help his dizzy friend up. James had stepped over to help Lily up as well. She blinked her eyes hard, a hand running through her hair in an attempt to rub the bump that was forming on her head.

When Sirius turned to apologize to the person he had bumped into, he immediately forgot that a huge book had just fallen on his head. He stuck out a hand, smiling flirtatiously. "Sirius Black at your service, madam."

Lily opened her eyes, and blushed when she saw the handsome boy, Sirius, smiling at her. "Oh, er, Lily Evans." She shook hands with Sirius, and the other two boys seemed to take this as a sign to introduce themselves as well.

"James Potter," said the black-haired boy who had helped her up earlier. Lily smiled, shaking his hand which was rough with calluses.

She turned to the last boy, Remus as she recalled, who was rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Er, sorry about the book. I didn't mean to hurt you, just Sirius, and--"

Lily cut him off. "Lily Evans," she said, sticking out her hand as Sirius had done. Remus grinned, grasping her small hand and pumping it with his own.

"Remus Lupin," he said, letting go of her hand.

Sirius grinned again, this time more to the entire group then just Lily. "Soooo, are you a first year?" he asked.

Lily bit her lip, trying to think back to her letter. What had it said? "I . . . I think so." she replied, eyes moving to look at her feet embarrassment. These boys looked as though they were knowledgeable about wizards. She on the other hand, knew next to nothing.

James shrugged, mussing up the back of his hair. "Muggleborn?" he asked, as if it were no big deal.

Lily looked back up into their eyes. Remus and Sirius had hardly moved an eyelash when James asked if she was a muggleborn. Maybe she had nothing to be ashamed of. "Yes, everything is new to me. I'll probably be the only one who doesn't know a thing about magic," she said sadly.

"Aw, don't worry about it, Lily. When we get to Hogwarts we'll be as clueless as you will." said Remus reassuringly. He then bent to pick up the book that had fallen on Sirius and Lily's heads.

Lily still felt nervous. What if everything went wrong? What if she was so bad at magic, she got sent home?

James, noticing the worried expression that Lily was wearing, coughed and turned to Sirius, trying to change the subject. "Want to go get an ice-cream?"

Sirius's eyes brightened, and he let out a bark-like laugh. "Yeah, I do! Remus, come on!"

Lily sighed, and went back to reading her list. Maybe she'd see the boys at Hogwarts the next week. In the meantime, Lily wanted to start trying to find her supplies. The three boys turned on their heels and were halfway to the door when Sirius realized something.

"Hey, Lils! Aren't you coming?" he nearly shouted, causing shoppers to either glare or mutter incoherently.

Lily immediately brightened. If she was invited, she may as well wait to find her school supplies. After all, maybe later Sirius, Remus, and James would help her find everything because it was apparent that they knew more about wizards then she did. Lily tucked her supply list back into her pocket and followed the boys who were waiting, Remus holding the door open. Maybe she'd just made some friends today. Maybe her new life as a witch would be better than her other life as a muggle.

A/N: Hope you liked it!


	2. Of Mudbloods and Hogwarts

Disclaimer: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling, not me

A/N: The spell 'Ollectcay' is own of my own. Ollectcay is the latin word for 'collect'.

Lily sat silently, looking out of the backseat window of her father's car. Trees passed by, appearing as a blotched green blur in the midst of the early sunlight that settled in the sky. Every once in a while Lily would sigh into the silence and her sister, Petunia, would glare at her venomously. The girls' parents were sitting in the front seats, Lily's father driving and her mother reading a book.

"Petunia, darling. Stop glaring at your sister in such a way, it's very unbecoming on suck a pretty face." Lily's mother said, closing her book with a soft snap. "If your father and I are to pay for you to attend such an expensive boarding school, I expect you to behave like a lady."

Lily muffled a laugh with the sleeve of her shirt. The fact was that Petunia simply was not what one would call a 'lady'. The young girl did not have Lily's beautiful fiery, red hair, but instead inherited a mop of thin, dark brown locks that seemed to plaster to her face. Petunia's facial structure was also abnormally elongated, almost like a horse, and her neck was twice the size that a normal neck should be. And while Mrs. Evans constantly dressed Petunia in the finest clothing money could buy, the luxurious dresses and shoes could not possibly make up for the girl's clear lack of beauty. Besides, even if Lily's older sister was pretty, her personality was dry enough to put even the most boring person to sleep as soon as she opened her mouth.

Lily returned to staring out the window in earnest, ignoring the sounds of her mother talking to Petunia. It was only a matter of time before Lily felt the car beginning to slow to a stop. Lily's father grunted, turned the engine off, and cleared his throat rather loudly. She took the hint, and opened the side door of the car, stepping out onto the pavement of King's Cross Station. Lily walked around to the back of the car, hoisted the door open, and gave her heavy trunk a tug.

Not surprisingly, the suitcase didn't budge, having been filled with all of Lily's school supplies. The week before she had met three young wizards who had taken her to buy all of her school books, quills, and a wand. Lily hoped she would see them again on the train; besides Sirius, James, and Remus, she had no friends. Lily pulled once again on the trunk, but it was just too big to handle by herself. It was, in fact, filled to the brim with twice as many books as the supply list had asked for. Lily had spent the remaining week of summer reading and memorizing as many spells as she could. James, Remus, and Sirius were all so knowledgeable when it came to magic, and Lily didn't want to fall behind.

"Lillian, what on earth is taking so long? Hurry up and get on that train! We have other errands to run." came the voice of Lily's mother.

She sighed, brushing the sweat that was forming on her brow. Why did she have to get stuck with parents who hardly cared about her existence? It seemed that everybody else had such loving and caring parents. Lily was positive that other kids' parents would help them with their trunks. However, instead of feeling sorry fo herself, Lily gave the trunk another rough yank; it hardly moved an inch. Instead, Lily ended up flying a few feet backward, landing straight into somebody's arms.

"Whoa, talk about angles falling from the sky."

Lily looked up into a pair of dark gray eyes that were curtained with shaggy, dark brown hair. "Sirius! Gee, I always seem to end up on top of you, don't I?"

Sirius's left eyebrow rose, and it took Lily a few seconds to realize that her statement had not sounded right. Sirius started to laugh. "Sirius Black, you are eleven years old! You shouldn't be thinking like that, it's –"

"– Lillian! What on earth are you doing?" Mrs. Evans, apparently tired of waiting, stepped out of the car and was startled to see Lily in the arms of a handsome young boy. "Oh!" She put a petite hand to her mouth, than said, "Lillian, we do not have time to wait for you to act like a little tart. Get your trunk out so your father and I can take Petunia to –"

"– Yes, Mother," Lily interrupted bitterly. She carefully picked herself out of Sirius's embrace, and when her mother's back was turned, gave Sirius a look.

Sirius shook his head in response. "I think your Mum and my Mum should get together and have a Firewhiskey."

"What do you mean?" she asked, watching as Mrs. Evans slid back inside the car.

Sirius sighed, than strode forward to help his new friend with her trunk. "I don't exactly get along with my family." He grunted as the stubborn trunk finally glided out of the car. "They believe that Muggleborns--"

"Like me?"

"– are scum. I don't like it, so I usually spend as much time that I can hanging around James's place." Sirius gestured for Lily to grab the other end of the trunk; she did.

The two were silent as they walked away from Lily's car, and only spoke when the sound of tires screeching filled their ears.

"Where's Remus and James?" Lily asked, panting slightly because of the weight of the trunk.

"Oh, they're on the train already with Peter."said Sirius.

Lily frowned. She vaguely remembered Remus scolding Sirius for pushing Peter into flobberworms, but other than that she knew nothing about the boy. For a moment she found herself wondering if Peter would be as good-looking as Remus, James, and Sirius, although she stopped when she realized that she had no interest in boys. After all, she was only eleven.

"Is he the one you pushed into the bucket of flobberworms?" Lily asked, adjusting her hold on the trunk.

Sirius snorted, causing a group of elderly ladies to stare at him as if he had an arm protruding from his forehead. "Well, yeah. But you don't know Pete, if you did you'd understand why. I mean, he's such an easy target and for some unknown reason he doesn't mind the pranks at all."

The two continued their playful banter until they reached platform nine. Lily snuck a hand into the pocket of her brown pants and pulled out her ticket. She stared at it for a moment until Sirius coughed loudly.

"Uh, Lily? What in Merlin's name are you doing?" he asked, all the while rocking on the heels of his feet.

Lily glanced up at platform nine, then craned her neck to view platform ten. However, there seemed to be no platform nine and three quarters between the two. "Sirius, where's the platform? I can't – "

"– Relax, I'll show you." He guided Lily and the trunk to a brick wall that stood in the center of the platforms nine and ten. "Ok, so all you have to do is," Sirius paused, making sure there were no muggles within hearing proximity, "go through the wall."

Lily stared at him for a moment, mouth agape. "I have to do _what_?" she asked, almost dropping her end of the trunk.

Sirius sighed then beckoned her to follow him closer to the barrier. "It won't hurt, Lily. It just feels like . . . like you're running through air."

When Lily's expression hadn't changed, Sirius once again made sure there was no passerby that were watching the two eleven year-olds. "Just watch, m'kay?" He then proceeded to press his free hand against the brick wall, except as soon as his palm touched the barrier, his arm went straight through.

Lily's eyes widened, and she automatically turned, checking that nobody was looking. "Sirius, what on earth . . .? Does . . . it doesn't hurt?" she asked finally.

Sirius made a show of pulling his hand out until just his fingertips remained behind the barrier, and then plunged it back in up to his elbow. "Nope," he stated. Then he removed his arm completely. "C'mon, we'll go together." Sirius said.

Lily took a deep breath. "Okay, but on the count of three."

"One," Sirius whispered.

"Two," Lily said shakily.

"Three!!"

The two ran into the wall, Sirius stifling laughter and Lily holding her eyes shut. But when her body didn't collide with the bricks, she opened them to see an huge, scarlet train with witches and wizards scattered amongst it.

Sirius grinned at Lily's shocked expression. "Magic is neat, huh?"

Lily nodded, eyeing the multi-colored cats and owls that were gliding around the platform while children and young adults said goodbye to their families. Some students were hanging outside of compartment windows, and others were standing alone, eagerly trying to find their friends.

"So . . . What happens now?" Lily asked, watching as a boy chased an orange cat around a sign that read 'Platform Nine and Three Quarters'.

Sirius did a one-shouldered shrug. "Well, we take this boulder of a trunk up to the compartment that James and I saved earlier."

He then led Lily in a zig-zag around the students until they reached one of the many doors of the train. The two hoisted the heavy trunk up a few steps until they were facing a long corridor with sliding compartment doors on each side.

"Thirty-nine, forty, forty-one . . . ah! Here we go, compartment forty-three." Sirius nodded his head to a sliding glass door. Behind it sat three boys who seemed to be building a card castle. Lily was just about to slide open the door when Sirius stopped her. "Watch out for the dungbomb you're about to step on," he warned.

Lily looked down to see a bright orange bomb that seemed to be giving off a putrid odor. "A dung-what?" she asked, stepping over the foul bomb.

"Dungbomb." Sirius said simply. "A bomb that smells really bad. I mean, it's called a dungbomb. Somebody must have dropped it."

Sirus eyed the dungbomb for a moment, and then, without hesitation, he kicked the bomb and Lily watched as it splattered against the door of a compartment two doors down. A burst of laughter was heard from passing students and the disgusting door slid open to reveal a girl with dark black hair and a pale face who looked to be the thirteen. She glared around the hall, then spotted Sirius who was laughing the hardest. "Think that's funny, do you, little cousin?" she challenged, striding forward. Sirius just blinked.

"Yeah, actually. I kind of do. And besides, you're only two years older than me." The hall once again filled with sniggering and a few more compartment doors slid open, including the one that held James, Remus, and Sirius.

"Well it's not! You can go throwing your dungbombs at Dumbledore for all I care, but don't you dare throw them at my compartment! And if you decide you want to again, you'll just find yourself being hexed!" the girl nearly shouted.

James stepped forward. "Who shoved your broomstick up where the sun don't shine, Bellatrix?" he spat.

Sirius laughed and was joined by quite a few other students. The girl rolled her eyes and pulled out her wand. "Why don't you just –"

"– Shut up!!" Lily shouted, dropping her end of her trunk and moving to stand between Sirius and the girl. "Why don't you just cast 'scourgify' instead of acting like . . ."

The girl gave Lily a stare. "And your name is?" she asked snobbishly.

Lily quieted a considerable amount before answering, "Lily Evans."

Bellatrix frowned, her eyes flashing. "Evans . . . Doesn't sound like a pureblood family name, you mudblood."

While Lily stood confused, Sirius, James, Remus, and even Peter and the majority of watching students started to yell and threaten Bellatrix. Lily still stood, staring into Bellatrix's evil ridden eyes. What was a mudblood? Before Lily could ask her question, a loud voice rang throughout the corridor.

"Alright, break it up! Break it up, NOW! Prefect, coming through!!"

Bellatrix glared at the tall blond girl who was striding through, pushing people back into their seats. "You'd better get sorted into Slytherin, _little_ cousin. Because if you're not, I swear on Slytherin's locket that your life will be a living hell." With that she turned on her heel, scourgified the dungbomb splatter off her compartment, and proceeded to slam the glass door shut.

"That's right, get back in there, Black!" Screeched the blonde girl. Lily noticed she was wearing her robes already and that there was a shiny silver badge that read 'prefect' sitting next to a scarlet and gold patch with a lion on it. The blonde girl turned to Lily and the rest of the gang. When she spotted James, she smiled. "Hello, James. It was high time you showed up on this train, yeah?"

James smiled, striding forward to shake her hand. "Long time no see, Marian. It's been, what, four months?" he asked, releasing her hand.

Marian shook her head. "No, five. At your parents' annual Christmas Bash." She looked over at the small group behind James. "Aren't you going to introduce me to your friends?"

"Oh!" Lily thought for a moment that James had blushed, but as soon as she glanced back she was sure she was mistaken. "This is Remus," James said, patting his friend's shoulder. "He was supposed to be at the Christmas party but his mother got sick so he couldn't make it. And this is Peter, he was at the party, but I don't think you two met. And of course, Sirius, who I'm sure you remember."

Sirius waggled his eyebrows at Marian who smirked and flicked him between his eyebrows. "How can I forget?" she exclaimed, her gaze turning to Lily. "And this is?"

James grinned. "Lily." he said.

"Ah, well nice to meet you all. I'm Marian Jones, fifth year, and Gryffindor." She smiled, her hand self consciously moving to straighten her prefect badge. "And prefect," she added. "James's and my families have been friends for a long time."

The introduction was cut off as the train gave a jolt and started to move. Peter and Remus clung to the door, James stumbled backwards into Sirius, and Lily fell sideways into her trunk. Marian, however, was standing, perfectly fine and stifling her laughter. "It's okay,"she managed to get out as the fallen first years stood, rubbing where they's been hurt. "You get used to it after a while."

"Let's hope so," moaned Lily, the left side of her face was a flaming red. Sirius nodded, glaring playfully at James for accidentally lodging his elbow into his rib cage.

"Well, now that it's eleven o'clock, I'd better head for the prefects' compartment. It was nice seeing you, James!" With that, Marian was heading down the hall, every once in a while stooping to pick up another dungbomb or fanged frisbee.

"Are you okay, Lily?" asked Remus, helping her bring her trunk inside the card-littered compartment.

Lily touched her cheek gingerly, then checking her fingers for blood. "I think so. I didn't hit the trunk that hard, but I wouldn't be surprised if it bruised, the way it's stinging."

James sat next to Lily, and moved forward to check out her cheek. Lily couldn't help but think that James had beautiful eyes. "Nah, it looks ok. I've gotten way worse injuries flying."

Lily nodded and watched Remus and Sirius heaving her trunk into the luggage rack before turning he gaze on Peter. "Oh, hello. I'm Lily Evans as you've probably heard." she said, holding out her hand.

"Peter Pettigrew," the boy said in a squeaky voice. He was probably a good inch shorter than Lily and was a little on the plump side. Peter sported thin blonde hair and watery sky-blue eyes. "But you can call me Pete," he added.

"Nice to meet you, Pete." Lily then stretched and pulled her knees towards her chest. "Well, how long is the train ride?" she asked.

Sirius frowned, sitting in the seat across from James while Remus sat in the one adjacent from Lily. "I dunno, but I've heard we get to the school around dinner time." he replied.

"And we do what for, say six hours?" Lily pressed, wrapping her arms around her knees. "Just sit here solemnly?" she asked sarcastically.

James made an 'mmph' sound, and gestured at the cards that covered the compartment floor. "We can play exploding snap."

Lily turned to look at James with a raised eyebrow. "What's that? I saw you guys building a card house earlier. Does it explode, or something?" she asked.

"Sort of," said Remus. "You split the deck of cards between the players. Erm, we should gather the cards."

The first years looked around the room. The cards were everywhere, even a few lodged between the seat cushions or behind trunks in the luggage rack. Then Lily had an idea. "Can anybody let me borrow their wand? Mine's in my trunk." she said.

Peter handed his wand mutely to Lily. She took it and then, picking up a card, pointed the want at it and clearly said, "Ollectcay!"

The boys watched in awe as all the cards flew from different angles in the room and collected in a neat pile in Lily's hands. She handed them to Remus. "Now what?" she asked.

"Wait!" Sirius nearly yelled. "How did you . . . What I mean to say is . . ."

"You're a muggleborn, how did you do that spell?" asked James, covering for Sirius.

Lily shrugged. "I read the set books. Memorized a few spells. I was going to look up a book on Hogwarts, but the bookshop seemed to have run out." she said as if it wasn't a big deal. When the compartment remained silent, Lily nodded at Remus. "Exploding snap?"

Remus cleared his throat. "Oh, um . . . Yeah. So, we split up the cards . . ." He proceeded to spilt up the deck into five piles.

"Got another spell for this, Lily?" joked Sirius.

Lily smiled. "Probably. But I only memorized the first year spells. Didn't you guys?"

James laughed heartily along with Sirius. "No." James answered simply.

"Okay!" exclaimed Remus. He handed the piles to his friends. "Now, a person starts the castle, so I'll go first." Remus took the top two cards from his pile and leaned them against each other on a trunk that was being used as a temporary table. As soon as the cards formed their little tent, they turned a very light shade of green. "Green means you're safe, orange means you should be careful, and purple means you should play faster because the cards are about to explode any second." Remus finished.

Lily thought for a moment, then asked, "So the object of the game is to not be the one to have the castle explode during their turn?"

"Basically. It's supposed to be really fast. The faster you steady your cards, the less likely they will turn orange or purple." explained Sirius.

"Right . . . So now it's Peter's turn?" asked Lily.

"Yeah," said Peter, already balancing his cards next to Remus's. "Now it's your turn, Lily. You got an easy round. You can build another tent next to mine and Remus's or place a card on top."

As Lily got the hang of it, the game started to speed by, and the cards turned orange and than purple. Hands became a blur as the group tried to balance their cards onto the growing castle until suddenly: it exploded in a flurry of cards in James's grinning face. They played a few more games and Lily had just lost one when there was a sharp rapping on the compartment door.

Peter stood and slid it open to reveal a petit woman behind a cart loaded with what looked like sweets. "Anything from the trolley?" the woman asked tiredly. Lily wondered how many times the woman had said those exact words in the past hour.

"Alright!" exclaimed James, jumping up from his seat and sauntering over to the cart. Sirius, Remus, and Peter eagerly followed. Lily stayed in her seat, watching in amusement as her friends ordered their food.

What surprised her was the fact that none of the candy names seemed familiar. Lily heard words such as 'Pumpkin Pasties', 'Drooble's Best Blowing Gum', and much more. It was only when James called her name that she was startled out of her thoughts.

"Lily?! Don't you want anything?" he asked, arms filled with sweets. Sirius, Peter, and Remus looked up from the cart as well.

Lily colored and suddenly found a singed exploding snap card very interesting. "I, erm . . . My parents didn't give me any money." she said quikley.

James tossed Lily's comment aside. "Well that's okay, you can just have some of ours." he said, carrying his stash of food to his seat.

The minutes that followed involved the boys sharing their candies with Lily. Sirius gave her something called a Licorice wand which was surprisingly very similar to muggle licorice. Peter let her have a piece of Drooble's Best Blowing Gum. There was soon lurid pink bubbles floating around the compartment that refused to pop for the next two hours. And then a box of Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans was passed around. Lily nearly gaged when her bean turned out to be foot flavored. Sirius always seemed to get the good flavored ones until James shoved a booger flavored bean down Sirius's throat. Most of the sweets were gone by the time the group reached a candy called Chocolate Frogs.

"Oh my gosh!" Lily screamed, dropping the chocolate frog box to the floor. "It's . . . it's alive!"

The boys burst out laughing. Peter knelt down to retrieve the frog before it ran into the sliding glass door and James grabbed the fallen Chocolate Frog card. "They're supposed to move, Lily, both the forgs and the people on the cards," laughed Sirius. "It's magic!"

"Don't worry, though. The great thing about Chocolate Frogs are the cards!" Remus said. "We all have a collection going, and you can join in on it too."

Lily smiled, grabbing a frog from the small mountain in James's lap. She opened the package and was ready for the frog's jump this time. Grasping one of it's tiny arms, she brought it to her mouth and bit of the head. "Mmm, caramel and nuts." she said around the food. Then she glanced down at the card which bore the name Circe.

Peter leaned over to see her card. "Oh, we have around nine of her."

"Yeah," agreed Sirius. "Quite annoying when you're trying to sleep. She'll talk about all the times she turned people into beasts."

Lily smiled, then popped the rest of the frog into her mouth, chewing happily. "What time is it?" she asked when she had swallowed.

Remus leaned over to look out the window. "We're probably almost there. It's gotten pretty dark . . . We should probably change."

The rest of the boys nodded and started to pull their trunks down but Lily had grown quiet. Change? As in strip down to your knickers? In front of _four_ boys?

"Here, Lily." huffed James, pushing her trunk towards her. "Get out your robes."

Lily looked up to see Remus, Peter and Sirius already unbuttoning their shirts. "Uh," she gasped faintly.

"What's wrong?" Sirius asked, pulling off his shirt.

Lily chuckled, not believing that they hadn't noticed the predicament that in her opinion, was so obvious. "Well, Sirius, it comes down to this. You're a boy and I'm a girl."

"And?" asked Peter through the fabric of his shirt.

"You guys are BOYS. I'm a GIRL." Lily stated slowly and clearly. She then glanced around and noticed James unbuckling his belt. She squealed and brought her hands up to cover her eyes. The compartment was silent until finally there was a few 'oh yeah's' and 'huh's' from the boys.

"Uh, just . . . keep your eyes shut, Lily. If you want to." Remus said, laughing.

"Yeah, I'm keeping my eyes closed!" shouted Lily.

After a few minutes the rusting of clothing being shed, the squeaking of trunks being opened, and the snapping of clasps subsided. "You can open your eyes now." said James.

Lily removed her hands to reveal a blush upon her cheeks. The boys were all dressed in slacks and their robes, and were all wearing smirks as well. "Oh, shut up," snapped Lily as she kicked her trunk open and dug around until she found her robes. "If I see any of you peeking, I swear I'll hex you with one of the spells I memorized!"

Remus, James, Sirius, and Peter all kept their eyes closed, but there was a fair good amount of giggling. When Lily fastened her robes and sat down, she sighed. "You can open your eyes. And shut up, Sirius!"

The train slowed to a stop a little while later and this time the group was sitting in seats. After the driver announced to the train that they had arrived at Hogwarts and notified the students to leave their belongings on the train, Lily and the boys all stood up and left the compartment.

The weather was cold and foggy, and once she stepped off the train Lily wished she had thought to put on her cloak as well as her robes. The only noise was the bustling of students, the guidance of the prefects and Head students, and in the distance the calling of, "Firs' years over here! Firs' years this way!"

Lily followed Peter, Sirius, James, and Remus to the voice and was startled to see that the owner was at least five times taller than she was. The giant introduced himself as Hagrid, and led the first year students along a dark trail. "You'll get yer firs' look at Hogwarts soon," Hagrid said as they rounded a corner.

There was a round of gasping when the school came to sight. It was a vast castle with millions of twinkling windows and towers that stood impressively above a huge dark lake. It was a few minutes before Lily noticed the fleet of boats near the shore. "Five to a boat!" the giant shouted, and he himself took up an entire boat that was leading the way. Lily and her friends all climbed into the nearest boat, and Lily held onto the lantern.

"Wow," she said as the boats started to glide across the lake. The castle was far more bigger then she had ever imagined. "It's amazi– UH!"

A small wave had crashed up against the side of the boat, and Remus and James had to grab Lily before se fell into the icy water's depths. Sirius turned in the direction the wave came from, his wand shining light on a particular boat.

The occupants were laughing wildly, and Sirius caught bits of the conversation such as, "Dija see the mudblood's face when–," and, "What a bitc–"

"Which one of you sent that!" Sirius exclaimed dangerously. Peter turned to make sure Hagrid wasn't aware of what was happening. Luckily he was too far ahead in the fleet to notice the small dispute that was heating up.

A boy with a pale face, hooked nose, and abnormally greasy hair stopped laughing and looked into Sirius's dark grey eyes and James's hazel ones. "I did." the boy stated proudly.

"Do it again and you'll regret it." James said in a warning tone.

"Yeah, well what's it to ya?" the boy sneered. "I'm Severus Snape, born from a long series of purebloods. And you are?"

"From this point on, your worst nightmare." Sirius said flippantly.

It was at that moment that the boats reached the shore. The two groups shot daggers at each other, then began to follow Hagrid toward the castle.

"Are you okay, Lily?" asked Peter while the first years walked across a short field.

"I'm fine, though the end of my robes are wet . . . Who were those boys?" she asked, her green eyes flashing when she spotted them only a few feet behind.

Sirius sighed. "He said his name was Severus Snape. I didn't get any other names, but you shouldn't worry. We'll protect you." he said noble-ly.

The group had finally reached the entrance to Hogwarts, and Hagrid let them in. "Follo' me n' you'll meet McGonagall." he said, leading the first years into the entrance hall. There was a huge staircase and four gigantic hourglasses, each holding a different jewel.

Lily was silent, and then said, "Why are people calling me a mudblood? What is that?"

Remus, James, Peter, and Sirius were silent until Remus finally said, "It's an insult used in the wizarding world. Some people –"

"– like the Black family and obviously the Snape family." interjected James.

"– are discriminatory against some wizards by blood. A pureblood is a wizard born into an all magical family. The term mudblood is used to describe a muggleborn. Somebody like you."

"Oh." Lily said softly. "Sirius, that girl back on the train . . . Bellatrix? She's your cousin, and earlier you said your parents didn't like muggleborns either. Why aren't you like them?"

"Because my family is made up of racist looneys who care about what doesn't matter." Sirius replied bitterly.

Lily was about to question the subject even more when Hagrid stopped in front of another huge door, and in front of it, was a strict looking woman. She looked to be in her early twenties, and her eyes were hidden behind square glasses.

"Good evening," she said. "I am Professor McGonagall, your transfiguration professor. Now, behind these doors, you will be into one of the following four houses. Gryffindor, house of the brave, Ravenclaw, house of the intelligent, Hufflepuff, house of the loyal, and Slytherin, house of the cunning."

At the mention of Slytherin, Lily noticed that Severus Snape and his friends gave each other high fives and whoops. She turned to James, who was closest to her. "Slytherin isn't a good house, is it?" she whispered darkly.

"No. At least half of the wizards and witches sorted into Slytherin turn out to be dark wizards." James said, following Lily's gaze to Snape.

"The house you want to shoot for is Gryffindor." said Sirius. "They say the Headmaster Dumbledore himself was a Gryffindor. But I'll probably end up in Slytherin. Not a Black in history has been sorted into any other house."

Remus patted Sirius on the back. "I dunno, Sirius. Your view on things is different from your family. You might be surprised." he said reassuringly.

Sirius smiled a small smile, but Lily knew he wasn't really believing his friends. "Relax, Sirius. We'll still be your friends even if you do get placed in that dung house." said James. Remus, Lily, and Peter all murmured in agreement.

"Alright, now." came the voice of Professor McGonagall. "We're ready for you." She then led the first years through the door and into the Great Hall.

The Great Hall was huge, separated by four long tables and a smaller staff table at the front of the room. Lily looked up at the ceiling to see a very realistic dark sky scattered with stars and a crescent moon. All of the occupants of the room watched as McGonagall led the first years to a three-legged stool where a ragged and patched wizard's hat sat. Everything became silent until suddenly the hat burst into song. The song described the four houses as Professor McGonagall had, except with much more detail and in rhyme. When the hat finished, the hall erupted in tremendous applause, and only quieted down when McGonagall started to speak.

"Now, when I call your name, come up and be sorted." she paused, consulting her list, and then saying, "Abott, Steven."

Steven, a dark-haired boy with shaky hands, strode forward to sit on the stool and McGonagall placed the ratty old hat on his head; it fell past Steven's ears. There was a short silence in which everyone stared intently at the hat. And then, the hat shouted, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

After the A's, the B's were upon the first years and then McGonagall called, "Black, Sirius."

Sirius was visibly very nervous, and his face was quite pale. But he walked to the stool with confidence, and soon the hat was placed on his head. Lily was praying for Sirius under her breath, and then the hat yelled, "GRYFFINDOR!"

The Gryffindor table burst into applause and Sirius grinned widely as he sauntered over to his house table. Funnily enough, Lily was almost positive she heard cat calls as Sirius sat down.

It seemed an eternity until the professor reached the E's. When she finally said, "Evans, Lily," Lily was pushed forward by Remus. She walked to the stool, sat, and waited for the darkness of the hat to cover her eyes.

"Ah, a muggleborn . . . We're finally starting to get more of those,"said the hat in her ear.

"Please put me in Gryffindor!" Lily thought hard, her fists clenching with nerves.

"Yes, you would do well in Gryffindor . . . However, I think you would do better in Ravenclaw. You are very smart, Miss Evans, and I certainly sense plenty of wit . . ."

"No! Please, Gryffindor, please!" Lily thought with all her might.

"Well, only if you're certain . . ." and then the hat shouted out loud, "GRYFFINDOR!"

Lily's face nearly cracked in half from the force of her smile as she stood up amongst yells of "Alright, Lily!" and "Yeah, Lils!" from her friends and obviously the victorious cheers from the Gryffindor table. She ran to sit down next to a grinning Sirius, and the two hoped for their friends to join them.

Remus joined Sirius and Lily after twenty minutes, as did Peter some time later. The four new Gryffindors looked over to James, who was yet to be sorted. And then, McGonagall called a familiar name. "Snape, Severus."

Lily frowned as she watched the greasy-haired git walk forward and sit on the stool. The hat was barely on his head for fifteen seconds when the hat exclaimed, "SLYTHERIN!" Lily was hardly surprised, but her thoughts were blown away when James too was sorted into Gryffindor.

It was some time later that the sorting finished, and Dumbledore stood, smiling at his students. "As I know all of you are hungry, without further ado, I present to you the feast!"

The golden plates, bowels, and platters filled to the brim with all kinds of wonderful smelling food. There was chicken, steak, ham, pork, beef, and turkey dishes with boats of thick gravy sitting beside them. Green beans steamed next to large bowls of peas with butter melting down the side of the bowels. Five different types of potatoes and rice also graced the table and so much more.

Lily immediately helped herself to the mashed potatoes and turkey and promptly dug in. Sirius and James appeared to be having an eating contest of steak and kidney pie while Remus sat cutting his ham into precise pieces. Peter seemed to have taken a little bit of everything and was unconsciously dropping crumbs and bones onto the floor. When Lily thought she could eat no more, the dinner disappeared only to be replaced with a buffet of desserts. Hundreds of different flavors of ice-cream with thick chocolate sauce and homemade whipped cream, a pyramid of rich brownies and biscuits, treacle tarts, and other pies.

Dumbledore stood once again after the desserts had disappeared. He waited until the hall had quieted down, and then said, "Now that our stomachs are full, welcome first years, to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. I am Albus Dumbledore, your headmaster. I would like to start off by reminding you all that the Forbidden Forrest is in fact, forbidden for a reason. And also that fanged frisbees, dungbombs, and other items are to be confiscated if found. Mr. Filch has posted the full list of these items on his office door, so please feel free to take a gander at it if needed. And now, I believe it is time for bed. Prefects, show your new first years to their common rooms. New heads, meet me in my office to discuss arrangements. Sleep well, and I'll be seeing you all tomorrow morning." he finished.

There was a rustling noise and the sound of people standing up when Lily heard Marian shout, "First years, follow me! This way, first years!"

"Wow, that was some meal, eh?" Sirius asked as the group followed Marian out of the Great Hall.

"Yeah it was!" James exclaimed, elbowing Sirius. "How come you didn't have any dessert, Lils?"

"Lils?" Lily asked, surprised at the nickname and remembering it being shouted after her sorting. "What kind of nickname is that?"

"A good one, Lils," replied Remus playfully.

"Don't you like dessert?" squeaked Peter. The group was now walking up a staircase with hundreds of pictures smiling and waving down at the new students.

"I had enough sweets on the train," Lily said, staring at the moving pictures in awe.

"– because Peeves hates first years," Marian was saying. "Also, watch the staircases, they like to change."

"Change?" asked James, running his hand along the banister; it certainly seemed steady.

Marian pointed up. All the first years tilted their heads where she was pointing and were shocked to see at least twenty staircases moving to different landings. After climbing a few staircases, Marian finally stopped in front of a particularly large portrait of a plump lady wearing a pink dress. "This is the fat lady," she told the first years. "It's the entrance to the Gryffindor common room, but only if you give the password. It happens to be 'Carpe Diem'." she said to the lady.

"Yes, yes," the fat lady droned, then swung open to reveal a hole in the wall large enough to crawl into.

Once Lily crawled into the short tunnel, she was greeted with the cheery common room. There was a large, merry fire place with a roaring fire, plenty of overstuffed chairs and couches, and even tables for students to do their school work. On each side of the room there was a door.

"This is your common room. You will spend a great amount of time in here, and soon, it will begin to feel like your home. Now, to your left and up the stairs is the boys' dormitory, and to the right and up the stairs is the girls' dormitory." Marian smiled one last time, then walked over to a group of girls that Lily assumed were Marian's friends.

"Well that sucks, Lily. We have a different room than yours." said Remus, trying to be cheerful.

"It'll be okay, though. It's only for sleeping, right?" Lily said, yawning. "Besides, who says I can't sneak up into your dormitory when I want to?"

Sirius laughed a bark-like laugh. "We're already starting to have a bad influence on you, Lils."

Lily smiled. "Yeah . . . too bad, I used to be so innocent." James and Remus grinned.

"Sure, you were . . ." said Peter.

Lily yawned again, covering her mouth. "Sorry," she said, blushing. "But I think I'm going to head off to bed."

Sirius nodded, then jumped forward to hug her. Remus and Peter did the same, as did James.

"See you tomorrow, Lils!" exclaimed Sirius.

Lily gigged. "Yes, I'll see you guys tomorrow." Then she turned, running up the stairs to the girls' dormitory.

A/N: Hope you liked it! This is my first marauder era story, so tell me if the characterizing is wrong. Oh, and I currently need a beta, so either email me or review and leave your email if you're interested. Please review!!!


	3. And the Story Begins

A/N: I'm sorry that i had to skip a few years, but I figured the younger years would be rather boring. My explanation is at the ending authors note. Enjoy, and I'm sorry for the long wait!

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* * *

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_**Four Years Later . . . **_

Lily Evans tapped her quill against the spine of her book, staring blankly at her half-written potions essay. Although Professor Slughorn considered Lily to be his most prized fifth year student, he still did not fail to hand out a ridiculously hard essay that was due in a mere two days.

The redhead sighed, closing her eyes for a moment and gently rubbing them with the heels of her palms. Then, with a frustrated groan, she snapped the book shut (_The Wonders of Sleeping Droughts_) and stood from her solitary table in the library. This was the fourth text that had been unsuccessful in helping her with her essay on the Sleeping Drought, and she really didn't have time to search through another for she was due to meet her friends in the kitchens at eight o'clock sharp.

Lily quikley sped down the isles of books until she found exactly where she had found the ludicrous text book. After sliding it back into place on the shelf, Lily walked back over to her table where she proceeded to gather her things and put them into her school bag. She really needed a new bag; she had been using the same one ever since her first year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the worn purple bag was nearly ripping at the seams.

Yes, Lily Evans had been a witch in training for almost five years. It seemed like just yesterday that she had mixed her first potion, and levitated her first feather in charms. Five long years that Lily had been best friends with Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, James Potter, and Peter Pettigrew.

Lily smiled at the thought, and finally left the library towards her destination: the kitchens. It had become a tradition over the past three years to meet in the kitchens every Friday night at eight PM ever since the group of first years had stumbled upon the portrait of the bowl of fruit. To be exact, Sirius was the one who actually had found it.

The group had been sauntering off to a Transfiguration lesson, and James and Sirius were arguing over who had won a chess match the night before. Remus, who had been listening to the never-ending quarrel for the past half an hour, pushed Sirius into the wall, or rather, the portrait, to shut him up. The young boy's shoulder had tickled the pear as he dramatically slid down in fake pain, only to fall backwards once the portrait had swung open. And then, some way or another, a tradition had begun.

Once Lily finally reached the familiar portrait, she artfully tickled the pear until it let out a high-pitched giggle, and then the picture swung open. The wonderful smells of the house elves' excellent cooking greeted her as she entered the large Hogwarts kitchen, as did her four best friends.

"Lily!" shouted a handsome young man, otherwise known as Sirius Black. "Jamsie-boy and I were starting to get worried. It is, after all," he glanced down at his non-existent watch, "Ten after eight."

Lily simply smiled, and sidled over to sit at the counter next to Remus. The boys had already requested a plate of sweets from the gracious house elves, so she reached for a particularly delicious looking chocolate eclair. "Well, pardon me for wanting to finish my homework," she said thickly, licking the gooey chocolate creme from her fingers. "I bet you guys haven't even glanced once at the assignment since Professor Slughorn assigned it."

"Lily, Lily, Lily," James said, shaking his head as though he were her mentor. "Why do you doubt our amazing abilities?"

Remus snorted, causing Peter to laugh when he realized that James was being sarcastic. Though Peter was one of the group, he was always a little slow on the update. "Sure, your amazing abilities of procrastination," Remus clarified, eying Sirius and James in particular.

James mocked shock, then smiled a devilish, crooked grin. "That was not what I was referring to, but," he paused taking a swig of pumpkin juice. "I cannot deny that that is also true."

"Of course you can't," Remus replied in earnest. "You two have been procrastinating ever since you found out the meaning of the word." He turned to Lily who was watching her friends with a small smile on her face. "C'mon, Lils. You have to put me into a completely different category than these idiots when it comes to school work. I may not be as on top of things as you are, but, well," he gestured to Sirius who was chugging a Butterbeer bottle.

Lily giggled as the liquid trickled down Sirius's chin. "You're not to worry, Remus. I fully understand."

"And you're just going to have to come to the conclusion that James and I will be finishing that essay the night before it's due. End of story, period," Sirius said, whipping his mouth with the back of his hand. "I mean, we could do it tomorrow night, but it's a Hogsmead day. I have a date with Tiffany Claremont."

Lily frowned at Sirius's dazed expression as he mentioned his new date. James, however, wore a look of pure appreciation. "I can't believe you're going out with that . . . that," she trailed off, finding no appropriate words to describe Tiffany Claremont.

"Don't worry, Lily. I happen to find her an airheaded beauty with a horrible personality," Remus assured her, but the redhead didn't miss the thumbs up that he passed to Sirius.

James just grinned, reaching for Lily's unfinished eclair and swallowing it in one gulp. "Lils, don't even try to understand the complicated mind of a bloke. All you need to know is this: she's bloody hot and wears brilliant skirts. I do have to say that she isn't as lovely as Kirsten Lastav, though."

Lily rolled her eyes at her male friends. "Merlin, if you two are on dates with mindless bimbos tomorrow, what are you two doing?" She gestured at Remus and Peter.

Remus smiled guiltily, and rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry Lily, but I have a date too."

The group turned to Peter who was sitting uncomfortably in his seat, nursing a plate of chocolate-chip cookies. "Yeah . . . I have one too," he muttered, his ears turning pink.

"Seriously?" exclaimed Sirius. "How great, even Pete has a lady!"

Lily frowned again, staring at her empty napkin. "Yeah. Great."

Ever since the four boys had noticed girls in their second year at Hogwarts, Lily couldn't help but detect a small rift forming in their long friendship. She was suddenly finding herself alone on more than one occasion because of her friends having dates. Lily herself had been on a few dates, but for the past year she just hadn't taken any interest in any of the boys at Hogwarts. And so, this was why she would probably end up staying in her dorm the next day, doing homework while Sirius, James, Remus, and Peter were out at Hogsmead, having fun.

"Oh, don't sound so depressed, Lily," James said when he noticed her lack of emotion. "You know you're still our number one girl, yeah?" He reached over and ruffled her shining hair.

"But of course, Lilykinns. You'd better not be doubting our special bond! You're not, are you?" Sirius looked at Lily with his dark grey eyes, studying her face.

Lily shook her head, hoping that her expression didn't give her away for what she truly felt. "No, I'm not," she said, trying to smile.

"Good! Because after my date tomorrow, you're going to help me pick out some dress robes for that Christmas Ball this wednesday." Sirius grinned, opening yet another Butterbeer.

Lily shook her head, smiling in spite of the current situation. Her friends would be nowhere with girls without her helping them. "Sure, Sirius. I wouldn't miss it."

* * *

"_Lily!" shouted someone as the red-head made her way into the Great Hall._

_The early morning sunshine shone from the magical ceiling above, and the four house tables were donned with every kind of breakfast food imaginable. Lily smiled as she approached the far end of the Gryffindor table, her gaze landing on four boys. She strode over to James, Remus, Sirius, and Peter, her book bag banging against her legs as she walked. _

"_Morning!" Lily said brightly, helping herself to a seat between James and Sirius. There was a chorus of greetings from her friends as she served herself a bowl of steaming oatmeal that smelled heavenly._

"_Have a nice sleep, then?" asked Remus, who was spreading a thin layer of butter on his toast._

_Lily shrugged, stirring a spoonful of brown-sugar into her breakfast. "It was alright. After I said goodnight to you guys last night I went up to the girl's dormitory. I share it with four other girls."_

"_Really? We have . . . what is it?" Sirius paused, tapping his fingers against the table. "Five? We have five people in our dorm."_

_Peter nodded and added, "Including us four."_

"_Frank something . . ." James mused, stealing Peter's bacon when the chubby boy was preoccupied with pouring himself a glass of pumpkin juice. "He seemed nice enough. Even told us about how he fancies this girl, Alice."_

_Lily frowned, wondering how a boy could be infatuated with a girl at such a young age. "How odd."she answered, because she really had no idea what else to say. "Actually, the name Alice sounds familiar. I think there's a girl named Alice in my dormitory."_

_Before any of the boys could reply, Professor McGonagall walked past the group, handing out timetables for the upcoming week. Amongst the usual sounds of utensils clattering against plates and the soft murmur of sleepy students, Lily was sure she heard a few groans of protest as McGonagall preceded to pass out the schedules._

"_Are the classes really that hard here?" Lily asked to nobody in particular. She scanned her timetable, which read double Potions with the Slytherins, Transfiguration with the Hufflepuffs, and even double Herbology with the Slytherins._

"_Aw, snitch! We have two DOUBLE classes with the Slytherins. Happy day!" Sirius said sarcastically, completely missing Lily's question._

_Remus however answered, "Well, they shouldn't be too hard this year. I heard it really gets tough in fifth year. That's O.W.L. year."_

"_Oh." Lily didn't even bother to ask what O.W.L. stood for, but merely looked over her timetable once again. She was relieved that she had all of her classes with the boys, though as Sirius had mentioned, she was going to endure four hours with the Slytherins. How fun._

"_James, stop wolfing down your bacon, you'll get sick,"said Sirius through a mouthful of sausage._

_Remus flinched for some reason, but Lily noted that Sirius, James, and Peter had not noticed. She wondered if the reaction was just in her imagination. After all, Sirius hadn't said anything unusual, had he? Perhaps Remus was just jumpy this morning. Either that or she needed to get her eyes checked. Is there even such a thing as wizarding eye-doctors? Surely there was some sort of spell, or– _

"_Lils! What are you doing?" asked Sirius._

_Lily looked up from her oatmeal to see that all four of her friends were standing, ready to leave for their classes._

"_Are you okay? You were looking dazed for a moment," James said. He bent forward and grasped her book bag as if the weight from her books would cause her to faint. The straps hung awkwardly on his shoulder, but he pulled off holding a girl's bag as if it were as manly as a sword._

_Lily nodded. "I'm fine, just sort of . . . dazed off for a minute. Or two." She stood, pushing her full bowl of oatmeal away from herself. "You don't have to carry my book bag, James."_

_James shrugged, grinning. "Nah, it's okay. It's pretty heavy even for me, so I can't imagine how heavy it must be for you! We don't want you toppling over the railings of staircases, do we?" _

"_Uh, oh," Sirius said cautiously. "A girl's book bag is too heavy for Jamsie-boy." He gave James a sympathetic look, then turned to Lily, shaking his head slowly. With a theatrical sniff, he said, "Poor guy. One day he can almost carry an entire trunk by himself and the next . . . A book is too heavy for his tiny arms."_

_James gave a fake sigh. "You're right, Sirius. How can someone like me stand next to somebody like you? YOU should be the one to carry this dead-weight bag. After all, with my weak arms, I can barely drag myself to my classes."_

_James pulled the straps of Lily's bag off his shoulder and dropped them into Sirius's unaware hands. The weight of the bag plus the height from which James dropped it caused Sirius to nearly fall to the floor._

"_Y'know, Sirius," said Remus amid Lily's giggles and James and Peter's laughter. "I do believe there's more than just one book in that bag."_

_Sirius didn't seem to hear Remus. His hands were shifting items inside Lily's bag. "Six books, three packages of parchment, eight quills, ten ink bottles, a potions kit, a wand, and . . ." He paused briefly, still rummaging the amongst the contents of the bag until he pulled the last object out. "And a chocolate frog from yesterday. Merlin, Lils, what's with all the stuff?"_

_Lily shrugged. "I had no idea what to expect . . . So I just packed everything." She tried to take her bag back from Sirius but he tugged it out of her reach, sliding the straps onto his shoulder. _

"_A true gentleman never lets a lady carry her books." said Sirius, smiling at Lily._

_The group finally started to make their way out of the Great Hall. They had just reached the grand staircase when a voice caused the five first years to spin around._

"_Nice bag, Black. "I didn't know purple was your color." It was Severus Snape. The newly sorted Slytherin stood, with a few followers behind him._

_Sirius and James angrily opened their mouths to reply, but Lily beat them to it. "Nice hair, Snape. If you get an anonymous bottle of shampoo for Christmas, don't hesitate to think it's from me."_

_Severus gaped and his eyes grew wide for a moment before he registered what had just happened. Several seconds passed before anyone said or did anything until Remus finally grabbed Lily by the elbow of her robes and pulled her up the staircase, but the other three boys stayed behind. Lily tried to protest, but in the end let herself be dragged away from the ruckus. It was only when she and Remus were half-way up the stairs that Severus yelled, "You filthy mudblood!"_

* * *

Lily gasped, her eyes opening wide in the early morning sunshine that streamed onto her comforter through the small opening in her hangings. With a small shake of her head, she gathered the thick curtains and yanked them open, letting the warm light ease the shiver that was running down her spine. She had had yet another dream about her past. 

It had been happening about once every few weeks, and every time the dreams seemed to be more vivid, more realistic. But the weird thing was that they weren't even bad memories. They were just little snippets of her life, almost as if she were watching a movie about herself.

She sighed, and ran a hand through her long, red hair. The dreams were probably a side effect of all the stress that came with O.W.L.S., or the Ordinary Wizarding Levels that were pushed upon the fifth years. They were nothing more than her conscience telling her to slow down on the studying. After all, it was only the middle of December. She would have many months to study before May, when the tests were given.

Lily stood, allowing her weight to shift from one foot to the other as her body got used to standing after eight hours of sleep. The four other beds that were splayed across the dormitory sported closed hangings, letting Lily to believe that her roommate were still sleeping. After resisting the urge to pull a Sirius and let out a loud, fake snore to wake everyone up, she bent down and pulled out a pair of jeans from her trunk.

It was winter, so Lily also slid into a green jumper that Remus had given her for Christmas the year before, along with a pair of thick, woolen socks. By the time Lily had finished her usual morning routine in the bathroom, most of the girls in her dorm were frantically bustling around, trying to beautify themselves for their Hogsmead dates. Lily had to muffle her sniggering when she noticed Sirius's date, Tiffany Claremont, practically destroying her trunk in attempt to find the perfect outfit. With an annoyed shake of her head, Lily tossed her toiletries back into her nightstand table and made her way down the stairs into the Gryffindor Common Room.

It was without a second thought that she walked right past the comfortable, overstuffed arm chairs and ran up the staircase to the fifth-year boys dormitory. The action was so familiar and ruitine that Lily didn't even knock before opening the door and walking right into the room. She ended up siting on Remus's bed because it was the closest to the door. His was also the only bed that was made and not covered with suspicious looking items.

"Hello, Lily," came a voice at the far side of the room. Frank was the only boy who inhabited the dormitory besides James, Sirius, Peter, and Remus. "Nice day for a Hogsmead trip, yeah?"

Lily smiled at slightly pudgy teen. He was the only person in the room besides herself, meaning that her friends were probably in the bathroom. "Indeed it is. Are you taking Alice out today?"

Frank's expression changed at that mention of his steady girlfriend, and Lily smiled. "Yeah, we're going to go to this new coffee shop. Madam Pudifoot's, or something," he said while running a comb through his hair. "It's some new place that just opened."

Lily nodded. "Hmm. Sounds good, I hope you both have an excellent time."

Frank grinned at Lily in thanks. "We will, and I hope you have fun today as well."

Lily looked away and started to play with one of the pillows on Remus's neat bed. "Oh, well," she paused, though Frank didn't seem to notice. "I'm not going because I have homework to do. I'll probably stop by near the end, though, because Sirius needs help picking out dress robes for the ball."

Frank sniggered, then grabbed his toothbrush from his trunk. "Those friends of yours have been hogging the bathroom," he said, obviously trying to make Lily forget about not going to Hogsmead. He banged on the door branching off of the room that led to the loo. "Open up, you've been in there for the past ten minutes."

"Relax, Longbottom," came a muffled voice that belonged to James. "We'll be out when we're ready!"

Frank frowned as he turned back to Lily. "What can they be doing in there that's taking this long?" he asked Lily in an undertone.

Lily was silent for a moment before she grinned evilly. It was a smile that clearly meant 'watch this'. She stood up and walked over to the entrance to the dormitory. After waiting a moment to make sure Frank was watching intently, she briskly opened and closed the door very loudly.

"Oh, hello Tiffany and Kirsten. How are you both today?" she was sure to annunciate the names of James's and Sirius's dates. "What's that? Oh, why yes. James and Sirius are in the bathroom at the moment, but I'm sure they'll be out momentarily."

Frank started to shake with silent laughter because by the hurried sounds in the bathroom, it was clear that the boys were indeed trying to hurry up. But Lily was far from being finished. "Yes, I know. I have NO idea why four boys would spend so much time in the bathroom together. It really makes no sense at all."

Suddenly the door to the bathroom burst open to reveal a James with hair messier than usual, a Sirius with pieces of tissue covering the nicks he had received during fast shaving, a Remus who was wearing his shirt backwards, and a Peter who looked . . . well, actually, Peter looked the same. Frank smirked at the four boys and sauntered past them, closing the door with a snap.

"Lily," Sirius said menacingly as he pulled off the bloody scraps of tissue from his chin. "You are sooo dead.."

In a matter of seconds he had pounced on Lily, causing her to fall backwards onto Remus's bed. James jumped on top of Sirius and started to tickle her ribs. After five years of friendship and many tickle fights, both boys knew where her most ticklish spots were.

"Guys, hey guys!" Remus shouted. "Guys, you're messing up my bed!"

The three people on Remus's bed stopped struggling and looked up at their friend who looked genuinely angry. But then Remus had grabbed a pillow off of Sirius's bed and started to whack it at Lily.

"Hey, no! Ew, I have no idea where that has been! Ugh!" Lily tossed and turned while the three fifteen year-olds got their payback. Peter stood awkwardly by the bedside, every once in a while getting hit by a stray pillow or one of Lily's flailing feet. It was only when Frank reentered the room that the fight slowed to a stop.

"Hey, Lils," Sirius said some ten minutes later. He was running a handful of hair potion through his dark brown locks, making sure it didn't drip onto his crisp black sweater over a white collared shirt. "You'll meet me in front of Dragonwood's Dress Shop to help me pick some robes out, right?"

Lily was still sprawled out across Remus's now unmade bed watching her friends finish getting ready for their dates. James was hopelessly trying to make his hair look somewhat neat while Remus was tying his shoes. "Sure, Sirius. I'll meet you there at 12 o'clock," she answered, hugging a pillow to her chest. That is, until she realized it was Sirius's. Then she threw it across the room.

Sirius grinned. "Thanks, Lilykinns. Maybe I'll buy you a new book in return." He turned to James who was still staring into a mirror. "C'mon, Prongs. Some things just never change."

Lily perked up, curiosity running through her veins. "Prongs? What in Merlin's name is that, a new nickname?"

Sirius suddenly palled, and he turned away from Lily. It was Remus who spoke up quikley. "Yeah, Sirius. What does Prongs mean, anyway?" Lily missed the glare that Remus was shooting at Sirius because she was too preoccupied with studying James. The messy-haired boy gave nothing away with his emotionless expression.

"Oh, uh," Sirius stuttered slightly before turning to face Lily again. "It's just a nickname . . . Y'know, it's like . . . It's a guy thing. You wouldn't understand."

Lily frowned, wanting to know more information. But from the look on Sirius's face she knew she wasn't going to get anything out of him. "Fine," she muttered bluntly. "I'll see you at 12, sharp." She flipped her hair over her shoulder indignantly and stomped from the room without another word.

* * *

Lily sat on her bed, staring at the dark red curtains of her bed. She could not believe what had happened earlier with the people who she thought where her friends. Friends told each other everything, and by the looks of it, she was left out of something. She sighed almost angrily and debated on whether she should go and help Sirius after he had been so brutally blunt. Lily finally decided to just go. Besides, maybe she could talk him into telling her the truth once they found the perfect pair of dress robes for him. 

She slid out of her warm bed and looked outside at the winter wonderland that was the Hogwarts Grounds. A thick blanket of snow covered the Quidditch pitch, and the Lake was frozen over. Tiny snowflakes danced their way down to the icy ground. Had Lily not been so depressed, the view may have made her excited about Christmas.

Lily tore her eyes away from the window and bent over to retrieve her winter coat from her trunk. It was white with a thick, faux fur lining and large silver buttons. She also pulled on a pair of winter boots, and slid a headband into her hair to keep her long locks from blowing into her eyes. With that done, Lily headed out of the room and down to the Hogwarts grounds.

Very little students above third year were left behind at the castle. It was probably because Christmas was a mere week away, and the only chance to finish Christmas shopping and to buy dress robes for the ball was now. The walk to Hogsmead was slightly lonely considering she usually did it with at least one of her friends. Not to mention that she had forgotten to put her gloves on, so the tips of her fingers felt like they were freezing off. Lily was very grateful that she reached Hogsmead and that the warmth of Dragonwood's Dress Shop would only be a few minutes away.

When she reached the large clothing store, Lily was quick to notice that Sirius had not yet arrived. She supposed that she was a few minutes early and resigned herself to starting the search for Sirius's dress robes.

The selection was fairly broad, probably because the owner had gotten wind of a Hogwarts ball and wanted to stock the store with robes for the students to buy. There were cotton robes in a large range of colors, soft satin robes with intricate trimming, and even a set with embroidered sleeves. But Lily was immediately drawn to the selection of velvet robes. The dark blue ones in particular reminded her of Sirius.

But she wanted to have a few options for her friend, so she made a mental note of the blue velvet robes and continued her search. She didn't even notice that half an hour went by. It was only when a salesman asked if she was actually going to buy something that Lily became aware of how late it was getting. Where was Sirius? A quick scan of the store told her that he wasn't there. Well, if he didn't show up, she wasn't going to help him.

Lily thanked the salesman and left the store, once again shivering in the wind. She decided to just head back to Hogwarts for a cup of hot chocolate in the kitchens and to think long and hard about her relationship with her friends. She was just passing a building known as the shrieking shack when she heard her name being called. And it wasn't Sirius who was calling her. It was Severus Snape.

"Hey, Evans? What are you doing by yourself? Did your stupid friends finally turn smart and ditch you and your mudblood qualitites?" Snape's voice was like nails scratching on a chalkboard.

Lily paused before turning to face her enemy of five years. She was not in the mood for his bad attempts in making her mad. The only problem was that today, under the circumstances, they were working. "Why don't you just go sit in a corner and die, Snape," Lily said in a scathing tone, eyeing Severus and his two friends standing in the snow. One of them was a Slytherin boy who Lily only knew by sight. The other was a boy who was one year younger then them. He was Sirius's younger brother, Regulus.

"Whoa there, Evans," Snape sneered. "Have I touched a nerve?"

Lily's expression hardened, but she didn't say anything. She just stuffed her frozen hands into the small pockets of her coat and stared at the snow.

"I have, haven't I. You see, you're not the only one who has noticed you so called friends' odd behavior," Snape said in the same mocking tone.

"Yeah, you would notice, wouldn't you. Isn't it about time you stopped stocking boys and stocked girls, Snape? I'm sure it isn't exactly healthy," Lily said, though she couldn't deny that she was intrigued by what the Slytherin had said.

Snape just smirked, shaking his head slowly. "You don't get it, do you Evans. I know things about your idiot friends that even you don't know."

Lily opened her mouth to say something, but the words got lost in her throat. What in Merlin's name was Snape talking about? Did he know what 'Prongs' meant?

"That's right," Snape continued. "Your friends have been sneaking out at night. Without you."

Lily's mouth dropped open, and she was quick to come to her friends' defense, "They have not been sneaking out at night! If they were, they'd take me with them. We used to do it all the time last year!"

"And have you this year?" Snape paused again, allowing the realization to sink into Lily. "You see, Evans. Your friends are hiding something. And I know how to find out what it is."

Lily blinked, her long hair blowing in the icy wind. Snape continued to stare at her, almost urging her to agree with him on some level. But Lily refused to give him the satisfaction. "My friends would never lie to me. Period. Good-bye, Snape." She turned, and marched up the hill, ignoring Snape's shouts. She wouldn't have heard him even if she wanted to, because there was a bitter ringing in her ears.

* * *

Lily didn't bother to go to dinner that night, and when Alice came up to the dormitory and told her that James, Sirius, Remus, and Peter were looking for her, she just pretended like she was asleep. She was, however, grateful when Alice set a napkin that contained a chicken leg and a biscuit on her nightstand table. She may have been angry and confused, but she still hungry. 

Lily was busy trying to preoccupy herself with something when she heard a loud rapping sound on the window. She sighed, turning and was not surprised when she saw a dark figure floating outside the window. She strode forward, opened the window, and let James Potter fly into the room on his broomstick.. He landed with a soft thump next to her bed, and when he turned, Lily crossed her arms.

"What do you want, James," she said in a bored tone.

James tilted his head and tossed his broomstick onto her bed. "Do you even have to ask, Lily? You weren't at dinner . . . We were worried about you."

Lily let out a fake laugh, though the situation was far from funny. "Tell that to Sirius. He asks me to help him and he doesn't even show up."

James ran a hand through his hair uncomfortably. "Yeah, he wants to apologize for that," he said softly. "I think he said the reason was . . ."

But Lily cut him off, throwing her hands up into the air, frowning. "Well tell him he doesn't have to bother, because I can tell you now that it is not accepted."

James frowned back at Lily and took a step forward. "Lils, what the hell is your problem? It's not like we did anything wrong!"

Lily smirked and let a burst of air out though her nose. "Did nothing wrong, huh, _Prongs_," she said angrily. James winced, but he too continued to frown. "Than how is it that you won't tell me the real meaning of that nickname, eh? Because I know it's not a 'guy' thing!"

"Lily," James said through clenched teeth. "We don't have to tell you everything, ok? If you had any girl friends, we'd all understand if you wanted to keep something 'girly' from us!"

Lily opened her mouth in shock, her green eyes narrowing. "What is that supposed to mean, James? That I don't have any friends that are girls? What about Alice, she's a girl! And that isn't even the point, so stop trying to change the subject! Why are you guys keeping things from me?"

James let out a frustrated groan. "Because we have to, Lily. It's just none of your business, okay?"

Lily sniffed, staring at James in shock. "I don't believe this. I truly just can't believe this," she paused, her voice shaking slightly. "Snape was right."

"Snape?! What does he have to do with any of this?" James ran his hand through his hair once more.

"Dear Severus told me that you boys were sneaking out at night without me. Keeping secrets and such. I said you guys wouldn't lie to me like that, but," Lily glared at James. "For once I guess he's right."

James's eyes flashed. "You believed that rat Lily? I mean, look at all that he's done to you!"

"So far today he's been a better friend than you guys," Lily said flippantly.

"He calls you a Mudblood, Lily!" James exclaimed in exasperation.

"And yet I don't see you denying what he said," Lily replied, crossing her arms angrily.

"You know what? Fine! You want to be friends with Snivelus, be that way!" James grabbed his broomstick from the bed and headed for the window.

"Maybe I will!" Lily shouted back. "And until you guys decide to be real friends, don't count on even looking at me!"

James turned around one last time. "Don't worry. We won't even be thinking your name." With that, he jumped out the window only to have it be slammed shut by Lily the second he was gone.

* * *

"I'll do it," came a shaky whisper. 

"Are you positive? You can't be backing out the last second, Mudblood. If you do, there will be consequences."

"No. I want to see the real light of my friends."

"Good, then. Here's what we're going to do . . ."

* * *

A/N: So sorry for the long wait! I had to outline the story's plot and make sure each chapter was figured out. Even though I skipped a few years, I'll have you know that the last three years are in extreme detail. Because, really, what interesting thing can happen when they're kids? Anything that would be signifficant you'll probably see in Lily's 'dreams', which, by the way, don't exactly have anything to do with Voldemort. Voldie is building an army right now. He won't appear until much, much later. I'm talking years, people. Anyway, I'm looking forward to your reviews!

-pottergirl101


	4. AN

**_Message for all Pottergirl101 stories_**

I know, right? You're probably wondering a million things. All the reasons why I haven't updated in what I can probably estimate to be around a year, or even more. Well, there are actually only several reasons to why I've temporarily stopped writing.

1. School. I'm a sophmore in high school now, and I put EVERYTHING that has to do with my college record before anything else. That means hours of homework, hours of studying, volunteer work, and school sports

2. After reading the last Harry Potter book I was kind of like, "Okay, what now?" To be completely honest I really didn't LOVE how it ended. To me it sounded like JK Rowling was just trying to scrape it all out, just to be done with the series. Thousands of questions that I wanted answered were left hanging, and that put me off for a while.

3. My old computer crashed, taking with it at least ten chapters of BTR 2: Meet the Potters, twelve chapters of Marauder and Marauderette, seven chapters of Catch me (my attempt at redoing You can't turn back time), and five chapters of Bachelor. This REALLy upset me, because I basically lost at least 50 hours of my life.

4. When I finally got back in the mind set to write, I hadn't set foot in the Potter scene for so long that it was completely foreign. Not to mention the fact that when I went back and re-read my writing, I thought it sucked compared to what I write now as a sophmore.

I'm sorry if these reasons seem completely stupid to you and if you're thinking, "What? She abandoned us for THAT?" And I really understand if I've lost you guys as my faitful reviewers. However, I seem to recall that I have always said I will never totally abandon my stories. I plan on being true to that, but only to an extent. You guys are going to do me a favor: I am setting up a poll to see which story you guys want me to start up again the most, because as of right now I can only handle one story instead of my old five. Send me a PM, a review on the story of your choice, etc.

Choices:

Breaking the Rules 2: meet the Potters!

Catch Me

The Bachelor

Marauders and Marauderette

Now, don't be upset if the winning story is not the one you wanted. I will at some point get back to the stories, just as I promised. But as of right now, the poll is open!

Thanks for all your help and support, pottergirl101


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